Social media was meant to connect us, but these days the reality looks far more bleak. Social media amplifies misinformation, exacerbates divisions, encourages extremism, and generally bums a lot of people out. But like any tool, social media can be used to help instead of hurt—if the designers have the right intentions. Somewhere Good is a new social network designed to create and enrichen communities through intellectually stimulating audio conversations. However, the app’s good intentions can’t make up for its barebones execution.

Getting Started With Somewhere Good 

Somewhere Good is a free iPhone app. There’s no Android or web version. The service is still new, so you need to preregister ahead of time to receive a sign-in code. In addition, you must verify your account with your phone number. Add your name, location, photo, and pronouns. That’s all you’ll need for your profile, and don’t worry about looking for friends. Somewhere Good does not let users follow each other. It focuses on a different kind of socializing we’ll explain in a bit.

Somewhere Good is more about what you hear than you what see, but the app itself is visually stylish. Dynamic backgrounds feature cloudy blue skies, swaying flowers, sparkling waters, and other moving scenes from nature. Big, bold text and colorful buttons evoke trendy casual restaurant menu vibes. The interface is extremely easy on the eyes. 

Speaking Up  

Think of Somewhere Good as an online, audio-based bulletin board. You speak and listen to others to keep the asynchronous conversation going. Posts can be up to one minute long, and include a picture or a link. Posts may also include transcripts. Naturally, this made me think of other recent audio-based social media phenomena, such as Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.

However, Somewhere Good strongly encourages specific kinds of interactions compared to those platforms. When you launch the app, you’ll see four different options: Artist Rituals World, Communal Care World, Radical Library World, and Deep Discourse World. Each of these categories focus on a certain kind of discussion. For example, Artist Rituals World is “a space to connect with other artists and explore the creative self.” When you enter a world, you see a conversation prompt. These change every 24 hours. So, for that entire day, the community is supposed to come together and discuss “How do you support your favorite artists?” or “How do you connect with your ancestors?” Users can submit suggestions for future prompts and the Somewhere Good team will take them into consideration.

That’s a really fascinating structure for a social network. When you drop in, you can play all the messages already there to get caught up before dropping your own. They appear as a chain, with direct replies and emoji reactions. It’s intimate, and discourages unaccountable anonymous harassment since messages are left up for everyone to hear throughout the day. Think of it as artisanal phone tag. The topics themselves are also extremely worthwhile. Of course, I want to discuss what radical self love means to me. Like Blacktag, Somewhere Good focuses on uplifting Black voices in our digital future. Once you got past the Silicon Valley ghouls, the early Clubhouse days were also good for socially conscious talks like this.

The Forest for the Trees 

Unfortunately, Somewhere Good’s vision is so highly curated, so laser-focused on doing one thing, that it feels lacking as a full experience. You can’t follow users, which presents an obstacle towards pursuing possible collaborations, something the app otherwise wants to encourage. With four topics and one prompt each, there are only four things to potentially talk about per day.

Right now, the community is also very small. I never saw more than a handful of messages on any given day, usually from the same folks. Those folks sound smart, cool, and politically active; some of the responses I heard were profound. Still, they’re just regular people, not big names to draw in the crowds. One day, during testing, I had the chance to be the first person to post on every board. Vero may focus on entertainment, but it still manages to be a well-rounded service for millions of different members. 

We first heard vague rumblings about Somewhere Good a few years ago. These audio conversations, while intriguing, feel somewhat like a recent pivot. Before launching the app, Somewhere Good’s website would direct you to creative Black-owned businesses. The website also boasts about its fellowship program that supports innovative designers in the community. I would like to see some of this expanded scope in the app itself.

We’ll Get There, Eventually

Somewhere Good’s audio conversations are so nourishing for the mind, body, and soul that participating in them may actually turn users into smarter, more empathetic people. That’s pretty much the opposite of any other social media app. However, that won’t do much good if the app doesn’t yet give users many reasons to stick around. Hopefully these voices soon grow into a chorus.